BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- AN INTERVIEW WITH HEATHER McNEIL FROM AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH'S MARKET CENTER MYSTERIES

Today we sit down for a chat with Heather McNeil from author Karen McCullough’s Market Center Mysteries.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

Pretty normal, really. I was lucky to get the job as assistant to the director of the D.C. Market and Commerce Center just a year after I graduated college. At first, the job was mostly clerical, taking care of paperwork and fielding phone calls. But then my boss discovered my talent for dealing with disputes and fixing problems, and that the exhibitors in our shows liked me, so they cooperated with my requests. Taking care of problems on the exhibit hall floor became a bigger part of my job during trade shows and exhibitions.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

I work well under pressure. I’m patient and keep a level head, even when people are yelling at me, trying to manipulate or intimidate me. I don’t do intimidated. (Although I’ve come close a couple of times when facing down desperate killers.)

 

What do you like least about yourself?

I’m very driven, some might say compulsive. At times I can’t let go of a problem, even when I should. And I suspect I’m more cynical than most people my age, too. Being in the company of so many high-powered sales people so much of the time requires a cautious and suspicious mind.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

That’s hard because all sorts of wild and strange things happen at trade shows. I think probably the malfunctioning popcorn machine at the Gifts & Decorative Accessories Show was the craziest. Or maybe it was being on a telephone call with a man at the time he was murdered. But confronting a couple of homicidal people has to go in the category of well beyond usual! 

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

Occasionally. Sometimes she asks me to do things that don’t really make sense and I have to set her straight.

 

What is your greatest fear?

A year or so ago I would’ve said losing my job. But having faced off with a couple of murderers, I’ve realized that there are worse things. My greatest dread right now is finding another dead body. I’ve already found more than my share and the trauma never goes away entirely.

 

What makes you happy?

Cool pens! I collect them. Companies frequently give away some interesting ones, and over the years I’ve acquired quite a few at various shows. Also solving problems and being with friends makes me happy.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I’d make it so the murders I’ve solved never happened. However much satisfaction there is in catching the person responsible, I would still preferred they never happened.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

Some of the exhibitors at the trade shows and expositions we hold at the Commerce & Market Center can be a real pain. They’re so focused on their own business and promos they fail to take into account the effects on others! That lady who insisted on running the malfunctioning popcorn machine is a great example. Imagine having to smell burnt popcorn all the time! Then at the most recent show, a couple of guys were letting visitors to the show practice on their dart throwing game. Unfortunately, the darts kept straying out of their booth and into their neighbors’ spaces.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

None of them. I like my job, and I’m really happy where I am, except for that problem with Scott Brandon, when I find out what he’s really doing while pretending to be a security officer for the Commerce and Market Center.

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

Karen McCullough is the author of almost two dozen published novels and novellas in the mystery, romance, suspense, and fantasy genres, including the Market Center Mysteries Series and three books in the No Brides Club series of romance novels. Karen has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy, and has also been a finalist in the Daphne, Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, and Vixen Award contests. Her short fiction has appeared in a wide variety of anthologies. You can learn more at her website.

 

What's next for you?

The end of the most recent book, Playing at Murder, left me in kind of an unhappy place, after learning some things I wish weren’t true, and with some major life decisions looming. Stay tuned to my website for more info on the next book.

 

Playing at Murder
A Market Center Mystery, Book 3

 

Dolls, constructions sets, stuffed animals, craft kits, and more are the featured displays in the annual Games and Playthings Trade Show at the Washington D.C. Commerce and Market Center, where vendors seek to convince retail buyers to stock their products. Murder and destruction aren’t supposed to be on the program.

 

The hit-and-run death of an exhibitor overshadows what should be a fun few days of giveaways, games, and demos. A gun hidden in a bin of stuffed animals, a damaged show car, and a drone knocking over the PlayBlox displays are the opening salvos of chaos created by a clever but unhinged vandal.

 

Settling disputes and fielding complaints are all in a day’s work for Heather McNeil, assistant to the director of the Market Center. Sussing out murder suspects to help the police is way beyond her job description, especially while trying to corner a vandal before the damage gets worse. Keeping the show running despite the mayhem will pit her and her allies, particularly Scott Brandon, the Center’s handsome but enigmatic security officer, against someone playing a deadly game.

 

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AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH EXPLAINS TRADE SHOWS AND THE MYSTERY SHE SET AT ONE

A typical trade show

Award-winning author Karen McCullough has written nearly two dozen novels and novellas in the mystery, romance, suspense, and fantasy genres, including the Market Center Mysteries Series and three books in the No Brides Club series of romance novels. Her short fiction has appeared in a wide variety of anthologies. Learn more about Karen and her books at her website where you can also find links to her blog social media.

Mysteries Set at a Trade Show – Wait… What is a Trade Show?

The very first time I went to a trade show, as a newly hired editor at a trade publication, I realized it would be a great setting for a murder mystery. It has so many of the needed elements: a closed environment, a group of people with plenty of history with each other, limited time, and high stakes.

 

What is a trade show you ask? 

 

I’m glad you did, since it’s a world that is unfamiliar to many people.

 

This is how the heroine of my Market Center Mysteries series describes it: "A trade show is...about manufacturers and importers selling their product to the retailers. They show their latest and greatest product to the retail buyers and hope the buyers decide they can sell a zillion of them to the public. A lot rides on this show for the manufacturers. Retailers sell to the public all the time, so a bad day or even a bad weekend isn’t going to kill them. But the retailers only go shopping for the stuff they sell a few times a year, mostly at these shows. They buy their product in huge lots, at the show or soon after. For the exhibitors, this is when they make the bulk of their sales, and there are only a few big shows a year. So the stakes are really high. A good show can make their business. A bad one can break it.”

 

A trade show is a huge gathering that is part educational conference, part huge marketplace, part fair, and part circus. It’s all about attracting the interest of buyers, and suppliers will go to great lengths to attract attention. Elaborate, eye-catching displays are expected. Contests and giveaways are essential to collect leads, since entry usually involves dropping a business card in bowl. Many exhibitors arrange product demonstrations, musical events, even playlets to attract attention.

 

Although Covid-19 has put the squash on some of these and more sales now go online and through reps, they are beginning to gear up again and I doubt they’ll ever stop completely.

 

Playing at Murder

A Market Center Mystery, Book 3

 

Dolls, constructions sets, stuffed animals, craft kits, and more are the featured displays in the annual Games and Playthings Trade Show at the Washington D.C. Commerce and Market Center, where vendors seek to convince retail buyers to stock their products. Murder and destruction aren’t supposed to be on the program.

 

The hit-and-run death of an exhibitor overshadows what should be a fun few days of giveaways, games, and demos. A gun hidden in a bin of stuffed animals, a damaged show car, and a drone knocking over the PlayBlox displays are the opening salvos of chaos created by a clever but unhinged vandal.

 

Settling disputes and fielding complaints are all in a day’s work for Heather McNeil, assistant to the director of the Market Center. Sussing out murder suspects to help the police is way beyond her job description, especially while trying to corner a vandal before the damage gets worse. Keeping the show running despite the mayhem will pit her and her allies, particularly Scott Brandon, the Center’s handsome but enigmatic security officer, against someone playing a deadly game.

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH ON BOOK CLUBS AND HER BOOK CLUB CENTERED SERIES

Karen McCullough is the award-winning author of almost two dozen published novels and novellas in the mystery, romance, suspense, and fantasy genres, including the Market Center Mysteries Series and the No Brides Club Romance Series. Today she joins us to talk about book clubs. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog.

A Book Series Joined Together by a Book Club

By Karen McCullough

 

Confession: Although my most recent book, Falling for the Deputy, is part of a series centered around a group of women who belong to the Hopeless Romantics book club, I’ve never belonged to a book club myself. Everything I know about them, I’ve learned from listening to others talk about the ones they are in. 

 

I’ve often thought it would be fun to be part of a group focused on talking about books, but I’m not sure it would work for me. For one thing, my time is at a premium. I already have too many demanding jobs. When I do have time to read, I generally want something light and entertaining.

 

But more importantly, I’m an author. That has changed my relationship with books and the way I read, especially fiction. I suspect my slant is akin to the way people in the movie industry watch films. Instead of being able to sink into the dream being presented in words or on screen, we wonder about the tricks, maneuvers, and sleight of hand the creators are using to convince us that what we’re reading or seeing is true.

 

I write romance, mysteries, suspense, and paranormal, and I’ve read widely in all of those genres. I grew up reading a lot of mystery novels because my dad had an extensive library. I gobbled up Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, and John D. McDonald in my teenage years, after graduating from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

 

Back in those days, the books often surprised and amazed me by producing solutions I didn’t see coming.

 

Now, I can tell when the author is setting up that person we casually met in chapter three, who appears to be just an interested friend, as the murderer. It’s all too clear that the grumpy but good-looking sheriff is going to end up being a love interest. The irritating neighbor will have a key piece of information. 

 

That scene in Harry Potter book six, between Snape and Dumbledore? Most people experienced it one way. I recognized the careful wording and realized there was another way to read it. I knew where the author was going with it.

 

When I read books now, I can’t help considering how the author is building specific characters, even down to the words he or she uses to describe them. I think about the setting and background and how they relate to what’s happening. 

 

Basically, it’s hard to sink into the dream and let the characters carry me away. Instead, I tend to try to take a book apart and see what makes it tick. 

 

That doesn’t mean an author can’t surprise me on occasion. It’s rare but I love it when it does happen.

 

Still, I think authors read books differently from the way most readers and book clubs seem to approach them. Readers want to talk about how the books affected them, whether they liked the characters, whether the plot worked, what they thought the author intended, whether it succeeded or not, etc. They explore whether the book worked for them.

 

An author wants to know what a fellow writer did to make it work.

 

Falling for the Deputy

Hopeless Romantics of Willow Ridge, Book 4

 

After losing at love twice, Barbara Wilton needs a change, some place far from her home in Boston, so she takes a position as manager of a small branch bank in Willow Ridge, Georgia. She’s done with relationships and ready to concentrate on her career. The experience in Willow Ridge will help her move forward in the banking industry, but she doesn’t plan to stay there permanently. Nevertheless, an invitation to join the Hopeless Romantics book club, a position on a planning committee, helping a little league team that needs coaching, and being adopted by a stray dog begin to wind her into the community. Meeting Deputy Chris Harper, a former Charlotte police officer until his marriage fell apart, draws her even deeper. But when money goes missing and Barbara becomes the chief suspect, duty and feelings collide.

 

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EVEN VAMPIRES NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT ACCORDING TO AUTHOR KAREN MCCULLOUGH

Award-winning author Karen McCullough has written more than a dozen novels and novellas in the mystery, romantic suspense, paranormal, and fantasy genres. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

What Is It About Christmas Stories?

Everyone loves a good Christmas story. Or, apparently, even a mediocre Christmas story, as long as it delivers some kind of feel-good message.

Hallmark offers a long list of Christmas-themed movies each December (and now reaching into November). Netflix supplies quite a few more. Search for “Christmas stories” on the Amazon or Barnes & Noble website and the resulting list of books and movies is practically endless.

What’s special about Christmas stories that we hunger for them? And, yes, I include myself in that group. I love them, too. What is the particular magic of the holiday that transforms a good story into one that tugs at the heartstrings? 

I think the question, as I worded it, contains its own answer in the words “magic” and “transform.”

Those of us in most Western cultures have been brought up to believe that the season is, in fact, magical. We may no longer believe in the storybook Santa Claus or Father Christmas or Kris Kringle, but there are remnants of belief lingering in the depth of our psyche. After all, the reason for the season is ultimately based on an act of divine intervention in the world, with the coming of Christ as a human baby who contains a spark of the divine as well.

I firmly believe that no matter how much our rational brains have rejected the idea of magic, elves, flying reindeer, and miraculous old men bearing gifts, a deep-rooted part of us still wants those things to be possible. And we also want to allow that those supernatural forces could work in ways that can transform us, individually and as a group.

The idea of a special holiday bringing out the best in people, and a generous flow of love from some persons influencing others in an outpouring of joy, care, openness, concern, and acceptance has nearly attained the status of a cultural myth. We may not believe in it, but we sure as heck want it to be true.

And because I totally buy into wanting the “Christmas Spirit” to be a true thing, I’ve written two Christmas stories that are very different from each other. Blue December is a traditional, sweet contemporary romance novel while A Vampire’s Christmas Carol is a darker, more Gothic paranormal story that still encompasses the Christmas Spirit.

A Vampire’s Christmas Carol

Can Christmas Eve get any more fun? On her way to her family's home, Carol Prescott’s car slides into a ditch in a deserted area with no cell phone signal. The only available shelter is already occupied…by a vampire. To Michael Carpenter, Carol is the bait of a trap.

In an effort to hold onto his soul, Michael has resisted the urge to drink human blood for almost a century. Now he hovers between human and vampire. If he doesn’t drink from a human before the night ends, he’ll die. He’s desperately thirsty, but Michael has seen the soulless monsters vampires are and he prefers death. Carol is pure temptation to him, the Christmas present from hell…or is it from heaven?

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AROMAS OF AUTUMN AND PARANORMAL ROMANTIC MYSTERY FROM AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH

Karen's daughter's cranberry pie,
which won a contest for most beautiful pie.

Today we’re joined by award-winning author Karen McCullough, here to talk about the aromas of Fall. Karen has written more than two dozen novels, novellas, and short stories in the mystery, romance, paranormal, romantic suspense, and fantasy genres. Learn more about Karen and her books at her website. 

The Aromas of Fall

Fall is a feast for the senses. People generally concentrate on the sights and sounds and tastes of fall – brilliant yellow and orange chrysanthemums everywhere, ghouls and goblin decorations to celebrate Halloween, spooky noises, tastes galore: chocolate, candy corn, and pumpkin spice everything – but fall offers some very distinctive aromas as well. Those fragrances are among the reasons Fall is my favorite season of the year.

Wood fires – I love walking around the neighborhood on a fall evening and smelling the aroma of wood fires in the neighbors’ fireplaces. It’s a pleasant smell, but it also reminds me of my childhood in a New York City suburb. In the fall my parents (and most of the neighbors) would rake the leaves into piles out in the street and burn them. It’s no longer legal in most urban and suburban areas, but it did make the neighborhood smell wonderful.

Flowers – After the long, hot, humid summer, when the shorter days of autumn arrive, the flowers in my garden, especially the roses, experience a short but welcome revival, blooming abundantly for a while, until the first frost finally ends it usually in late October or early November. There’s something especially sweet about the scent of a late season rose.

Baking – I’m not much of a cook, but I love baking. I bake many batches of cookies for Christmas and I usually start early and freeze bags of them. I also use my Halloween pumpkin for baking fall goodies. On the day after Halloween, I bring the carved pumpkin inside, wash it thoroughly, then cook it in the microwave until soft. I mash it in a blender and use that to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, and other fall goodies. No pumpkin coffee, though.

Fruit – This is apple season! In North Carolina people trek to the mountains in the western part of the state to view glorious fall foliage and pick up buckets of fresh-picked apples or pick some themselves. There’s almost nothing as good as the aroma of cooking apples, whether they’re candied, baked, boiled for applesauce or made into pies. It’s also the time when those lovely little Mandarin oranges flood into the grocery stores.

Spice – This is the real scent of fall, and it goes along with the baking smell. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, etc. Add these to almost anything, and aromas improve along with the flavor. They’re essential to all the great fall foods – cookies, cakes, applesauce, pies, and everything pumpkin, even those pumpkin spice lattes.

What’s your favorite fall aroma?

Guardian of the Grimoire

Magic, mystery, and romance combine in a gothic story that sees a peaceful, small-town library turned into a supernatural battleground. In the library’s basement a dangerous book lies hidden somewhere in stacks of old crates, and librarian Jess O’Rourke is caught in the middle of a battle between a demon and the book’s mysterious guardian for possession of it....

Librarian Jess O’Rourke already has her hands full with her father’s declining health and the under-staffed, under-funded library she runs. A new preacher in town waging war on her books is just an annoyance at first, but an attractive mysterious stranger warns her that there’s more behind the reverend’s campaign than she can guess. The new preacher is a human possessed by a demon and he’s searching for an old grimoire that’s part of an uncatalogued collection of books stored in the library’s basement.

Gabriel Sutton has been the guardian of the book for a long time, a very long time, he claims, since that has been his penance for crimes he committed as a soldier during the Civil War. He convinces Jess that she needs to find the grimoire and use it to return the demon to where he belongs. 

Their time gets short when the reverend realizes she’s searching for the book and resorts to desperate measures to either retrieve or destroy it.

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GUEST AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH'S FAVORITE FICTIONAL HEROINES

Award-winning author Karen McCullough is the author of more than a dozen mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy novels. Her short science fiction, fantasy, and romance fiction has also appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications. Learn more about Karen and her books at her website and blog.

My Favorite Fictional Heroines

I’m a female reader and author with broad taste in fiction. I grew up reading mysteries because that was what my Dad read, so we had plenty of them around. I cut my teeth on Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Rex Stout. In my early teens I discovered fantasy and science fiction when a friend lent me a stack of books by Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Andre Norton, and James Tiptree. I tore through them, bowled over by all the new worlds opening up to me on those pages. (And just as an aside, it wasn’t until years later that I discovered the last two were both female authors writing under male names.)

In my later teens I began reading gothic romances and enjoyed the combination of interesting relationships and eerie suspense. Somewhere in there I picked up a couple of books by Mary Stewart and landed in the thrilling territory of romantic suspense. By my twenties I was dipping into a lot of genres but beginning to get more discriminating in my taste.

One of the things I found I wanted, even craved, in my stories was a strong, capable heroine. In too many of the mysteries or gothic romances I read, the heroine was a wilting flower, wimpy and far too dependent on the hero to rescue her from all her troubles. Those books always annoyed me. I wanted smart, capable, strong heroines who might share danger with a man but didn’t depend on him. I liked heroines who could make their own decisions, didn’t do stupid things, and didn’t rely on others to get them out of trouble.

Heroines that could be strong, smart, competent, capable, and still likeable aren’t as common as I would like, although the trend is going my way in this. With that in mind, I picked out a few of my favorite fictional heroines to talk about. Most are from ongoing series, just because I’ve had more exposure to them as a result. They’re very different characters but all fit my criteria and I always enjoy reading about them.

Kinsey Milhone – The private detective lead in Sue Grafton’s Alphabet mystery series that started with A is for Alibi. She’s smart and tough in many ways and has faced some of the deepest darkness in people, but she hasn’t let it destroy her humanity. Her independence is hard-won but the struggle has given her tremendous insight. There are other female detectives who also fit the profile but Kinsey is the one I relate to most closely. I loved her from the moment she mentioned that she cut her own hair with nail scissors.

Sookie Stackhouse – The heroine of Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries. Some people are more familiar with the stories in their television incarnation as “True Blood,” but I like the books better. Sookie has fae blood but her human side dominates for the most part. Growing up with the ability to hear other peoples’ thoughts has caused her to be a bit withdrawn and nervous, but she is drawn into the world of vampires and shapeshifters when she discovers she can’t hear them, making them easier for her to deal with. Though the supernatural politics are rough and tumble, her abilities make her a very capable detective, able to maneuver in both worlds.

Kate Daniels – The protagonist of Ilona Andrews’ Magic series, Kate is a mercenary with a bad-ass attitude and some super-human powers. Independent, strong, and mouthy, she is willing to work with her lover Curran and his pack of shifters, but she still goes her own way and makes her own decisions, particularly when it comes to her complicated family entanglements.

Eowyn – One of the few female characters in The Lord of the Rings, Eowyn is one of the strongest and most honorable in its cast. The niece of the king has been frustrated watching her uncle waste away, unable to do anything about it. And when the troops muster for battle, she’s there, even though she has to disguise herself in armor to go along. Not really a spoiler: she acquits herself well in battle, winning an important victory.

Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) – So maybe this one is too easy because she is a goddess and superhero, and my choice is certainly influenced by the recent, wonderful movie. She’s almost the archetype of the strong, capable heroine. If you haven’t seen the movie, give yourself a treat and go. The scene where Diana walks across a no-man’s land (love the very deliberate irony of that!), deflecting bullets, is absolutely stunning.

Heather McNeill – You’ve probably never heard of her, but I hope you will eventually. Heather is the heroine/amateur detective in my ongoing series of Market Center Mysteries. She’s the assistant to the director of the market center and the person who handles complaints from and disagreements among the exhibitors and attendees at the events held there. I introduced her in A Gift for Murder, which was first published by Five Star/Cengage before they cut their mystery line, picked up by Harlequin’s Worldwide Mystery line for mass market paperback, and finally also released as an ebook. Her adventures continued in Wired for Murder, which I initially self-published, but which will also be published in paperback by Harlequin. And I’m now in the midst of writing the third book.

Wired for Murder

Most of the time, Heather McNeil loves her job as assistant to the director of the Washington DC Market Show Center. Because she’s a good listener and even better at solving problems, her boss assigns her to handle a lot of the day to day issues that arise during the shows, exhibits, and conferences being held there. When Heather becomes an unwilling audience to murder during the Business Technology Expo and later finds the body, she’s willing to let the police take care of it. But she soon learns more than she wanted to know about the victim and all the people who really didn’t like him very much.

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#TRAVEL TO ENGLAND'S CHANNEL COAST WITH GUEST AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH

Hythe, Kent

Award-winning author Karen McCullough is the author of more than a dozen mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy novels. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications in the fantasy, science fiction, and romance genres. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog.

A Visit to England’s Channel Coast

Having part of my family – my son, his wife, and two children – living across the ocean from me in England can be hard. I haven’t been able to be there to help when the children were born, nor can I manage to be there for all the developmental milestones, birthdays, special events, or when they need extra help due to illness or work crises. Still I’m grateful to live in this century when pictures and videos make it easier to keep up with them, and Facetime lets me even watch the children at play and talk face to face with them.

The flip side of the coin is that I have a great excuse for travel abroad.  It’s given us the opportunity to visit several places in that country and others in Europe. In 2015 we met them in Rome and did some travel around Italy.

Late last summer they had a second child, which limits their ability to travel for a bit, but we did have the good fortune to visit them in the town where my daughter-in-law grew up.

Hythe is a lovely town on the Channel coast in Kent, just southwest of Dover and Folkestone, on the northeastern edge of Romney Marsh. It has a beautiful shingle beach (stones, not sand) with a popular seafront promenade. On very clear days you can see the coast of France across the channel.

It’s an old town as well, with some buildings dating back to the Middle Ages, though most of the structures in the main part of town are a combination of eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century vintage. But behind their antique facades, many of the buildings have been modernized and are still in use today. The main street is narrow but gets heavy traffic, except during the times when it’s blocked off to automobiles and the road becomes a pedestrian walkway.

Hither Hotel and Beach

It's not a very touristy place, which makes is a delight to visit, but it does have some features that make it well worth a visit, including a really magnificent hotel on the shore, the Hythe Grand Imperial. We had a chocolate tea there that was to die for!

The High street is lined with a variety of shops, teahouses, restaurants, and there’s even an antique mall. You can easily spend a day just browsing all the charity shops, the bookstore, the bakery, fruit and veg stalls, and have lunch or tea and cake at one of several lovely places.

A park with boats to rent and plenty of room for the kids to run around and play surrounds the old military canal that runs through the town. Or walk along the promenade from the hotel to the end where a tiny seafood restaurant serves some of the best fish and chips around, or better yet, have a scallop roll that will leave you dazed with delight.

Hythe is just two rail stops away from Dover, site of the famous ferry landing and of Dover Castle. The castle, which dates originally from the Middle Ages, is worth allotting an entire day. The main keep features displays of castle life in the fourteenth century, and the roof of the keep offers a panoramic view of the countryside, but the tunnels underneath were used extensively during World War II and the displays there range from fascinating to downright creepy. Also on the grounds are the ruins of an old Roman lighthouse and a chapel. We packed a picnic lunch, but there is a café on the grounds along with the inevitable gift shop.

Romney-Hythe-Dymchurch Light Rail 

A final attraction in Hythe is the Romney-Hythe-Dymchurch light rail line. Several times a day small coal-fired steam engines pull streams of passenger cars along a 14-mile light rail from Hythe to Dungeness. There’s very little in Dungeness other than a nuclear power plant, two lighthouses (an old one and a new electric one), a couple of gift shops, a few scattered old cottages painted matte black, and the shack Marconi built back around the turn of the last century to test out his radio. But it features an astonishingly strange and bleak landscape of shingle covering acres of coastline that is worth the journey all by itself. I could write another entire post on the rail line and Dungeness.

How does all of this tie into my books?  It doesn’t, really. But there is inspiration for any number of stories here and someday I’ll write one.

In the meantime, my latest release, Hunter’s Quest, is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Hunter’s Quest

Kristie Sandford's vacation is interrupted when a man jumps out in front of her car. She avoids hitting him, but when she stops to see if he's hurt, he demands she help him escape from the people chasing him. Kristie has an odd "gift" - she occasionally gets warning messages, and she gets one saying he needs her help or he'll die.

Jason Hunter is an NC SBI (North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation) agent working on his own time searching for a friend, an investigative reporter who disappeared while tracking down rumors of corruption in the bureaucracy of a small mountain town. Jason is grateful to Kristie for rescuing him, but dubious when she insists she has to continue helping him.

Kristie is attracted to Jason, but the edge of danger she senses in him reminds her too much of the abusive family she escaped as soon as she could. Still, the message said he'd die if she didn't help him, and the messages have been right before.

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FAVORITES, FAILURES & FRUSTRATIONS: GUEST AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH

Karen McCullough is the author of a dozen published mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy novels and novellas. She has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy, and has also been a four-time Eppie finalist, and a finalist in the Daphne, Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, Scarlett Letter, and Vixen Awards contests. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications. Learn more about Karen and her books at her website and blog.

My Failure: Setting Realistic Career Goals (or I’m Still Not a Bestseller!)

Thirty years ago when I started writing in a serious way, intending to sell my ramblings, I was young enough and naïve enough to think that if I worked hard and strived to get better at the writing that in five to ten years I could sell a novel or three or six to a major publisher and see it become a bestseller.

In fact, I did sell the sixth complete novel I’d written to Avalon Books in 1989. And I sold three more to them before my editor left and the new editor wasn’t as happy with my writing. But I was ready to take on longer, deeper books than Avalon would publish, so I didn’t feel it was a setback so much as a new opportunity.

I’d planned to write a few more romantic suspense novels and was pretty sure that I’d be able to sell them to a New York publisher. After a while I’d make it to some bestseller list and I’d be set. At the time that was my main goal.

If I’d only known much sooner how foolish that was. Too many things are out of my control and too much luck is involved at every step. Your editor/agent doesn’t connect with the latest thing you’ve written.  As already mentioned, editors change, and they don’t all have the same taste. Publishers consolidate; they kill lines; they even go out of business. The things you like to write go out of fashion and publishers won’t buy it any more. I’ve had all of those things happen to me.

That’s my failure, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sometimes sting.  I’ve had books published. I’ve gotten good reviews. I’ve won a fair number of awards and contests. But I’ve never gotten a five-figure advance for a book, and I’ve never made it to any best-seller list.

So, I’ve come to realize that the only thing I can really control is my own work.  Now my goals are centered on things that I can actually make happen. How many pages I’ll try to write in the next period of time; how many submissions I’ll send out; the schedule for releasing my backlist; and doing promo for my books.

Wired for Murder

Most of the time, Heather McNeil loves her job as assistant to the director of the Washington DC Market Show Center. Because she’s a good listener and even better at solving problems, her boss assigns her to handle a lot of the day to day issues that arise during the shows, exhibits, and conferences being held there.  When Heather becomes an unwilling audience to murder and later finds the body, she’s willing to let the police take care of it. But she soon learns more than she wanted to know about the victim and all the people who really didn’t like him very much.

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TRAVEL WITH SERENA--GUEST AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH AND A VISIT TO ENGLAND

Stonehenge

Award-winning author Karen McCullough’s wide-ranging imagination makes her incapable of sticking to one genre for her storytelling. As a result, she’s the author of more than a dozen published novels and novellas, which span the mystery, fantasy, paranormal, and romantic suspense genres. A former computer programmer who made a career change into being an editor with an international trade publishing company for many years, she now runs her own web design business to support her writing habit. Learn more about Karen and her books at her website and blog.

Inspiration in the Details

I recently made a trip to England. A few years ago, my only son went to graduate school in Wales, met his future wife there, and later got a job with Osprey Press in Oxford. Two months ago, he and his wife welcomed a new member to the family, a baby daughter, so of course we had to head over there to meet her. We had a great visit, enjoyed being with them, and delighted in getting to hold and cuddle the new grandchild.

Oxford is an interesting place to visit. Millions of tourists can’t be wrong—and they’re not. Despite the crowds of tour groups and visitors that pack the city in summer, it’s fun just to walk the streets and soak in the history, but there’s also the wonderful Ashmolean Museum, the Sheldonian Theatre, the Bodleian Library, the Museum of Science, the Children’s Story Museum, and all the various colleges, some of which are open for tours at various times. For a writer, there’s all sorts of inspiration.

For me, it’s generally specific things that spark ideas. It’s not that long since I got back, so I haven’t had time to develop any of these into stories yet, but they will be. Here are a few things from the trip that are going to be part of my stories some day.

The Story Machine

One of the more fascinating items I saw was the Victorian Story Machine that resides in the Children’s Story Museum in Oxford. This incredible, steam-punkish item supposedly harnesses the power of a child’s imagination to generate new and unique stories. I have no idea how or even if the thing was supposed to actually do anything, but the possibilities… Oh, my goodness, I already have several story ideas!  Suppose someone could invent a story machine that actually worked? What effect would it have on the kids?  The adults who heard those stories? The whole publishing industry?  Or perhaps someone created some other interesting invention in the process of trying to make this work?  Or it was put there by an alien culture trying to figure out what makes us humans tick?  I like to take my story ideas in any direction they’re willing to go, no matter how absurd. I never know when one idea might rub up against another and spark an explosion of…story!

The Ashmolean Museum of Oxford is home to one of the most interesting, mysterious and beautiful items from Anglo-Saxon English history: the Alfred jewel. More about this unique item here, but what struck me was how sophisticated the design was for the time period and just what a beautiful piece of art it is. We think of that time period as being part of the “Dark Ages,” but clearly an appreciation for design, color, and form was already well-developed, and certain crafts were already being practiced at a high level of skill.

The Alfred Jewel

There are so many things you could do with something like this. An historical romance about the jewel’s creation. A mystery where a second version of the jewel showed up and was judged just as legitimate as the one in the museum. A heist from the museum. Of maybe a fantasy where items like this were created for magical purposes. So many possibilities!

This one may seem a bit obvious, even trite, given the number of stories it’s already inspired, but I have to mention it anyway: Stonehenge. I’ve seen pictures of it all my life and I’ve read plenty of books and stories in which it, or other stone circles, figured. But even so, I was stunned when I saw the actual thing.  It’s not the thought of the work involved in building it without modern tools and transport or even speculation about the function. It’s just the sheer physical impact of it. Although they have almost nothing else in common, seeing it with your own eyes has some of the effect as seeing the Grand Canyon. No picture can quite convey the scale of it, the sheer monumentality of size and grandeur.

Do I actually have to talk about all the possibilities?  So many books have already been done using Stonehenge and other stone circles – historical romances, time travel, mysteries, etc.

When people ask me where I get my ideas, I tell them ideas are all around us. You just have to set your imagination loose on everything you see, do, hear, and experience.

In going through some old books that my husband had gotten from older members of his family, I found several ancient tomes with hand-written pages. Some of it was barely legible. At about the same time, I needed to write a gothic novella for an anthology and the book came to mind.  I’d been visiting my daughter recently and she has a cookbook she refers to as her Grimoire. The ideas began to jiggle against each other, and Guardian of the Grimoire resulted.  A year or so ago, I got back the rights to the story and have re-released it as an ebook. It’s just $1.99.

Guardian of the Grimoire

Magic, mystery and romance combine in a gothic story that sees a peaceful, small-town library turned into a supernatural battleground. In the library’s basement a dangerous book lies hidden somewhere in stacks of old crates, and librarian Jess O’Rourke is caught in the middle of a battle between a demon and the book’s mysterious guardian for possession of it...

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TRAVEL WITH SERENA--GUEST AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH ON EDISTO ISLAND

Award-winning author Karen McCullough is a web designer as well as the author of a dozen mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy novels, novellas, and short stories. Learn more about Karen and her books at her website and blog.

The Beach That Inspires Me

For the last several years, my sister-in-law has been renting a beach house on Edisto Island, a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina between Charleston and Hilton Head. My husband and I and various other family members join her for a week of sun, surf, and sand in early to mid-May. 

It’s a wonderful break for all of us, but like everything else, the sights, sounds, smells and other experiences of the coastal visit go into the idea-churn inside my brain and come out in new pieces in various stories.

Although Edisto Island isn’t the exact model for the island setting of most of the first third of my paranormal romantic mystery, The Wizard’s Shield, the experiences I’ve had there over the years do figure largely into the descriptions and events in the book, especially the first part.

A violent storm in the first couple of chapters forces my two main characters, one-time friends separated by circumstance and betrayal for many years, to work together to save the island and its inhabitants. It brings them back together and reminds them of the unique bond they’d had at one time.

Although I’ve never had the opportunity to fight the effects of a squall with magic as Michael and Ilene do, I’ve experienced the frightening way storm winds howl and flatten the sea oats along the dunes, the way they churn up the ocean, making waves roar and foam, the sizzle of lightning that seems way too close, and wind-whipped rain that feels like bullets. I’ve looked out across the ocean and seen the dark cones of waterspouts dropping from cloud to sea. All of that became part of the scene, amped up by magic.

Later when the two protagonists take a long walk on the beach to have a painful but necessary conversation, I use the sights, sounds, and objects found on the sand to punctuate their talk.

“What did they do to you?” she asked.

He didn’t know how to answer, so he started walking again. He stalked along, occasionally glancing out at the ocean. The roar of the waves beat against his ears, keeping time in some odd way with the beating of his pulse. His chest seemed to collapse inward, making it hard to get enough of a breath to speak. It took a while before he realized that Ilene had caught up and was nearly running to match his pace. He slowed enough to let her stop jogging.

“It’s a long story,” he warned her at last, when he’d relaxed slightly.

I don’t know that I’ve ever had a conversation that serious during my many long walks on the beach, but there is something about the surf, sand, shells and other bits of nature that inspire one to think about life and one’s place in the universe more deeply.

The Wizard’s Shield

A powerful wizard with a physics degree and a checkered past invents a shield to ensure he'll never again be tortured almost to death.

The wizarding powers-that-be fear the repercussions of such a device and send his former girlfriend, an accomplished wizard herself, to retrieve the device or destroy it.

When the shield is stolen by the magical mafia, Ilene McConnell and Michael Morgan have to set aside their differences and work together to recover it. Michael claims he needs the device as insurance against the kind of injury and injustice he suffered once before. Ilene maintains its potential to upset the delicate balance of power makes it too dangerous and that it needs to be destroyed. But none of that will matter if they can’t retrieve it before a ruthless, powerful wizard learns how to use it for his own ends.

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